• Home
  • About
    • Governance & Structure
    • The AER Executive Board
    • The AER Secretariat
    • Statute & Strategies
      • AER Statute
      • AER Procedures
    • AER stands with Ukraine
    • The History of AER
  • Members
    • Who are AER’s members?
    • Member Directory
    • Join AER!
  • Mutual Learning
    • About Mutual Learning
    • The Knowledge Transfer Forum
    • Working Groups
      • Ongoing Working Groups
      • Past Working Groups
  • Advocacy
    • About Our Advocacy Work
    • The Bureau
    • The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
    • AER Political Priorities 2020-2025
    • Intercultural Regions Network
  • Projects
    • About Our Projects
    • Ongoing Projects
    • Look for Partners
    • Completed Projects
  • AER Programmes
    • AER Eurodyssey
    • AER SUMMER ACADEMY
    • AER Youth Regional Network (YRN)
    • AER Observatory on Regionalisation
  • Events
    • AER events
    • Other events

Assembly of European Regions

Connecting regions, inspiring Europe since 1985

You are here: Home / News / Why Food matters for regional development

Why Food matters for regional development

31 January, 2019 By Editor

Facebooktwitterlinkedinmail
Share this!

Providing citizens with affordable, safe and nutritious food is complex. Moreover, the health and wellbeing of citizens and consumers are directly affected by the way cities and regions are shaping a sustainable food environment. The management of food systems and food quality has therefore far-reaching impact for areas as varied as health, climate, jobs and innovation.

The development of the bioeconomy policy will be a primary determinant of Food and Nutrition Security. Bioeconomy is Europe’s response to key global challenges. It is meant to:

  • make food available, accessible and affordable for all
  • build climate smart food systems adaptive to climate change
  • implement circular economy principles
  • grow new jobs and industries, thus empowering communities

The Bioeconomy: at the crossroads of sustainable development

Food 2030, a timely EU research and innovation policy response to the recent international policy developments including the SDGs and COP21 commitment, provides a wealth of information relating to bioeconomy research and food.
As defined by the European Commission, the bioeconomy is “the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy. Its sectors and industries have strong innovation potential due to their use of a wide range of sciences, enabling and industrial technologies, along with local and tacit knowledge.”

Food, a priority for regional development

Given the expected changes associated with climate change and the continuous population growth, much more effort and innovation will be needed in the food sector.

Several regions have identified food innovation, energy and sustainability as strategic areas for their development strategy. Among them, Molise is investing in new technologies for smart food production; Southern Ostrobothnia focuses on food technology and agricultural innovations; while Örebro’s focal point is on agroforestry systems, that could make important contributions to sustainable food production.

What all those regions have in common is to sustainably work on increase agricultural production, improve the global supply chain, decrease food losses and waste and improve safety and quality of food products.

AER 2019 Spring Committee Plenaries

Multiple times per year, AER brings together regions, so that they may stand stronger together, and grow in a space of best practice exchange.

The 2019 Spring Committee Plenaries will be hosted by the region of Örebro in Sweden, from 26 till 28 March 2019.

This year, food will be in the spotlight. AER members will discuss how more investment in research, development and technology can help achieve synergies and adequately address trade-offs among agriculture, water, energy, land and climate change. Building resilience of food systems at a regional level will be critical to reach global food security and good nutrition for all.

Photo by Daniel van den Berg on Unsplash

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Follow AER!
Facebooktwitterlinkedinrss

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Agriculture, Circular Economy, Climate change, Cohesion, Culture, Economy, Energy, Environment, Event 2019 Spring Plenaries, Governance, Growth, Health, Innovation, Regional development, SMEs, Sustainable development

← Meet us in Paris to launch the “I Choose Europe” campaign Towards a more sustainable Europe by 2030 →

More articles on this topic

Committee 1 Annual Report June 2019 – November 2020
Committee 1 progress Report Spring 2020
A New Horizon for Europe: Navigating into the European Horizon for Research and Innovation
Committee 1 Progress Report Spring 2018
Territorial approaches: the governance of Abruzzo for rural areas

AER. Connecting regions, inspiring Europe since 1985.

Follow our newsletter!




View previous campaigns.


  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Tweets by @europeanregions

AER Projects

  • Ongoing projects
    • EU-BELONG: An Intercultural Approach to Migrant Integration in Europe’s Regions
    • Includ-EU: Regional and local expertise, exchange and engagement for enhanced social cohesion in Europe
  • Partner search
  • Completed projects
    • SCIROCCO Exchange project
    • SKILLNET – Sector Skills Network of VET centres in Advanced Manufacturing: a coalition of transnational VET providers
    • CUBES – Cultural Administration Boosting with the Engagement of Sustainability for Local Communities
    • Y-FED: Europe is what we make of it
    • AMiD – Access to Services for Migrants with Disabilities
    • AER Summer Academy 2016
    • Alcohol Prevention Peer Reviews
    • ECREIN+
    • Engaged
    • Joint Efforts to Combat Dropout (JET-CD)
    • Let’s REUnite! Together for cohesion project
    • MOCHA
    • MORE4NRG
    • PRESERVE
    • PYE – Promoting Youth Employment
    • PRO-I3T
    • REALM – Regional Adult Learning Multipliers and the Europe 2020 Flagship Initiatives
    • Regions4GreenGrowth
    • Road to the Future
    • SEED European Silver Economy Awards
    • Smart Care
    • Smart Europe
    • YES – Youth Entrepreneurship Strategies

Library

Statutory Documents
AER Strategies
Minutes
Media Kit
Activity Reports
Newsletters
European Regions Map

Join AER!

Become a Member

Job Opportunities

Sign up for our Newsletter

Website map

Brussels · Strasbourg · Alba Iulia

A Network, a Partner and a Voice of European regions, since 1985 · Copyright © 2023 · Assembly of European Regions · [email protected] · Log in